So Close

Greetings faithful readers! There are so very many things on which to update you, I thought I would organize into sections:

Where Things are at with the House

Ok, I actually do believe we are in our very final last week in the garage! The kitchen is complete except for grout on the backsplash tiles. One bathroom upstairs is complete (and looks fantastic, I might add), leaving one clawfoot tub in the master bath to be installed, and some work on a couple of sinks. After that, the plumbers switch our water over from the old hot water tank in the cellar to the new on-demand system, and they're done. Trim (and who knew it could take so long??) is almost finished-- the pile in the livingroom is dwindling rapidly as the crew work on remaining baseboards upstairs. I spent the weekend dashing back and forth between weeding the garden (who knew weeds grew so fast??) and painting shelves in the pantry, linen closet, and bedrooms. And hey, guess what-- I have a pantry and linen closet! What a thrill this house is, it's going to work really really well.

The hot water heater here in the garage pooped out about three weeks ago, so we've been washing dishes in cold. This weekend we had the bright idea of carting dirty dishes over to the house and running them through the dishwasher, then putting away in the kitchen. I need to wait until the paint in the pantry sets a bit, then I can transfer everything into the kitchen and we'll start eating there (hurray!).

Paul got called in to work at Selkirk College again for a few weeks, so the timing is not great except financially (who knew renos cost so much??). The good news is he can work from home (data entry), so his routine will be 'enter some numbers, move some furniture... repeat until done'.

A final sign that it is time to vacate the garage: Paul saw something furry scurry behind the tv last night. Pulling my feet up onto the couch, I asked (shrieked, actually) if it was a mouse. He said it was one of the tiny pocket gophers. I don't care, they're all rats to me. So we set Cassius to work, and I heard him hunting into the wee hours of the morning among the boxes of beekeeping equipment, tools, and household detritus. And I think I just saw some remains-- ok, a head (what does he do with the bodies??) behind the cat food bin. Ugh. I know it's not logical, but I just think the house will be more rodent-proof because I've watched as the carpenters have fortified, sealed, and made whole again what was a somewhat leaky boat.

Garden, or Things I have Killed so Far

Awhile back, when the tomatoes and two figs had been in the greenhouse for a few days, winter gave us one more kick in the shins before heading out the door. Here was the sad result:

Poor frost-bitten things, I moved them outside and snapped the post-mortem pics. I kept putting off dumping them into the compost for some unearthly reason, and Lo! Behold the Resurrection:

The tomatoes are also sprouting fresh green leaves, so I've spared them in hopes of a full recovery.

The lasagna garden is coming along... tucking transplants in is dead (oops, don't say that!) easy and works well. Seeding is another matter. The book says to spread dirt on top of the lasagna bed for planting seeds, but I found it dries out very fast and sprouting is spotty at best. So I'll add to the list 'killed one packet of heirloom specialty beet mix, and one packet parsnips'. I've resown both, but the results are still dodgy looking. Here is a recent pic of the garden (I haven't mowed the paths lately).

There is a seedbed at the bottom left with spinach and other greens just coming up; you can see broccoli in the centre of the photo, and peas to the right. To the back-left are potatoes, doing nicely. The beans just poked their heads up this week, and I swear every time I turn around they've grown another inch. I still have cucumbers to transplant out, they're in the greenhouse summing up the courage to start spending nights out of doors. And the cold frames are almost ready-- they're built and I'm amending and trucking over wheelbarrow-loads of soil in my spare-haha-time... the peppers will then be moved there from the greenhouse. So all is going pretty well there, despite being constantly behind on the weeding!

Bees, or How to Catch a Swarm, Paul-style

So far we've had two swarms-- one that landed handily in a fruit tree, about six feet up on the trunk, and the other that checked out a neighbour's pine tree, changed their minds, and flew back into their hive (who knew they did that??). With the first swarm, we set an empty box under the tree and tried various methods of coaxing them into it-- all to no avail. Then Paul (being Paul) had the bright idea of  vacuuming them off the tree. Here's a pic for proof:

Of course, being a guy, he used the shop-vac. The bees weren't harmed because he reduced the suction power (something involving a plastic bag around the filter?), and he simply emptied the live bees into a hive box. Expert swarm-catcher!

Final update:

Ok, I was just out in the garage-kitchen and saw a very plump rodent stroll across the floor into the office. It is most definitely time to vacate these premises. The next time I write will be from the comfort of our beautiful house.

Sayonoro, garage, I won't be missing you any time soon!